Facts: The murders at Malmö Latin School
The murder at Malmö Latin School occurred when the school day ends on March 21, 2022. Two teachers were attacked and suffered such severe injuries that they died.
An 18-year-old man was arrested later in the night. The motive for the murders must be that the perpetrator felt maladjusted. The two teachers were selected at random.
Malmö district court sentenced the 18-year-old to life imprisonment. Two changes in the law in a short time made it possible for the district court to sentence the 18-year-old to a historically harsh sentence in relation to his age.
After a change in the law in 2020, more and more people are now being sentenced to life in Sweden, and after another change in the law at the turn of the year, the limit for who can be sentenced to life was lowered from 21 to 18 years.
He was also sentenced to pay a total of approximately one million kroner in damages to the survivors of the murdered teachers.
The verdict was appealed and on Monday the Court of Appeal for Skåne and Blekinge will deliver its verdict.
Mats Jansson reacts strongly to the connection that the defense makes between diagnosis and acts of violence – a connection that is both incorrect and causes damage, he says.
— This causes people who have the diagnosis or are close to those who have the diagnosis to become sad, angry, upset. They don’t recognize themselves in it at all, says Mats Jansson.
“Fully within a diagnosis”
On Monday, the Court of Appeal will deliver its verdict against the 18-year-old who was sentenced in the district court to life imprisonment for murdering two teachers at Malmö Latin School on March 21 this year.
Both the larger forensic psychiatric examination and the National Board of Health and Welfare’s legal advice have determined that he did not suffer from a serious mental disorder at the time of the crime or at the time of the examination.
A result that his lawyer has disputed. When the Court of Appeal now hears the case, the defense wants to see a different assessment – with reference to the murderer’s autism.
– It is completely within the scope of a diagnosis that he simply could not control his actions, said defense lawyer Anders Elison during the appeal court hearing.
According to the defense, the 18-year-old’s interest in school crimes must have been aroused during school lessons in criminology. Diligently searching the internet for school bullying and attacks, Elison also claims, “is very typical of an autistic person”.
— This could just as well have been that he became a specialist in bird watching or all of Malmö FF’s matches over the past 25 years. Now he was funneled into these thoughts by taking criminology classes, which was absolutely fatal according to the psychiatrist I call as a witness.
Constitutes a vulnerability
What does the research look like on a possible connection between autism and violent crime?
— We currently have no studies that indicate that autism in itself increases the risk of being convicted of violent crimes. On the other hand, we see a clear over-representation with a diagnosis of autism in both correctional care and forensic psychiatry, says Björn Hofvander, licensed psychologist, specialist in clinical psychology and docent in forensic psychiatry at Lund University.
– What we think then is that it has to do with additional problems – that you have autism plus other difficulties as well, Hofvander continues.
According to him, it can for example be about substance abuse, an ADHD diagnosis and social vulnerability – factors that pose a risk of criminality regardless of whether one has autism or not. In forensic psychiatry, it can be a matter of psychosis or that a person convicted of violence also has an intellectual disability in addition to their autism.
– It is approximately two-thirds of the people who receive an autism diagnosis during a forensic psychiatric examination who are later sentenced to forensic psychiatric care – so it is a fairly clear majority of those who receive an autism diagnosis during an RPU who later serve their sentence in forensic psychiatry, says Björn Court walk.
If you only have autism and otherwise live a good life and get the support you need, there is no increased risk of being convicted of violent crimes, he underlines.
TT: Can autism be considered a vulnerability in combination with other factors?
— Yes, you could say that.
“They think you can be dangerous”
For the person with autism, it becomes a burden if those around them start to connect acts of violence with the diagnosis, emphasizes the Autism and Aspergers Association
— You think that you are already in a vulnerable situation and that, in addition to having to fight to get the right support at school, adaptations, entering the labor market or whatever it may be, you also have to struggle with people – neighbors, schoolmates, teachers – look askance at you because they think you can also be dangerous, says Mats Jansson, an expert at the association.
Can you ever use autism in an argument about the causes of crime – or in the assessment of a crime? An extremely complex question to answer, Mats Jansson believes.
“If a person with autism commits a crime, it may in the individual case be that the autism has nothing to do with the matter, but it may also be that it is actually relevant,” he says and continues:
— But it is clear that autism can play a role in a chain of events. But it is just like with any other factor that is assessed.
Before the Court of Appeal verdict, the prosecutor requested that the 18-year-old be sentenced to life imprisonment. The defense has requested a time-limited sentence.